vendredi 13 novembre 2015

First case Study.

Case study : Rwanda


The issue ... 

In Rwanda  , 25% of the population can't still have access to safe drinking water source, while 26% of the population have no access to improved sanitation facilities. Rural areas are more affected by these problems. 
Few Rwandans have access to running water in their homes. Most of the time, you can find community water points where they are charged a nominal user fee for the water according to either container size or monthly consumption.
Piped water systems are very important in Rwanda rural areas. We can find 847 piped rural water systems and 19, 300 protected springs. Piped water are pumped systems. The service in rural areas is provided by community-based organizations, private operators which have contracts with district government and by privately owned systems.
The main problem in these areas is the distance to a water source which provokes an important burden on women and girls who are the first water carriers for their families. This fact has an impact on women's and girls' lives, their economic productivity and their access to education. Moreover, children are very impacted by the lack of hygiene and by unsafe water and poor sanitations that can create ill effects like Diarrhoea which is on the top three killers of children.


Internal actions

In Rwanda, the Ministry of Lands, Environment, Forests, Water and Mines is in charge of determining strategies. It is also in charge of monitoring drinking water quality and promoting user awareness. The ministry of infrastructure supports the construction of water supply systems, latrines, hygiene promotion with the UNICEF's help.

Utilities Regulatory Agency has been created by law in 2001. This Agency promotes a responsible economic regulation of electricity, water sanitation, gas and transport's sector. Its aim in water sanitation is to regulate in a way that promotes fair competition, sustainable and efficient use of water resources. It ensures better quality of services to customers with fair prices and effective protection of environment.

External actions


The World Bank supports rural water supply and sanitation through a series of projects. The most important was the US$72,3 million water supply 02 Project – 1987-1998 – and the US$ 20 million rural water and sanitation Project - 2000-2007-. The latter has provided 352,000 people with access to improved water services in December 2006.

In 2005, the European Union signed a contract with the Rwandan Government for a water project in the Bugesera Region ( Kigali Rural). This project benefit four district in the eatsern part of Kigali City. 

The African Development Bank has also committed US$22 million to rural water and sanitation.

Some associations and NGO are also involved. Within them, we can find UNICEF which supports the Government of Rwanda to improve access to water and sanitation as well. Most notably with support from Government of the Netherlands and communities in Rwanda, UNICEF has helped to provide first time access to water and sanitation to half a million people in 2013. UNICEF also supports policy development and capacity building for water and sanitation.
We can also see through an article of East African Business Week that some foreign cooperations are supporting Rwandan targets. The Japan International Cooperation Agency ( JICA), for instance, wants to '' construct new water supply systems and rehabilitate existing ones for improving access to safe drinking water'' according  to Takahiro Moriya, the JICA Chief Representative.  

I have found this video interesting.  It is a simple and good summary of the situation in some rural part of Rwanda, the issues and progress which have been made. 







vendredi 23 octobre 2015

A general Introduction

Rural Water and Sanitation in Africa




Nowadays, unequaled and inadequate access to water is a real problem concerning millions of people through the world. Poverty is one of the consequences resulting from this inadequate access to water and it has impact on health, food security and livelihood.

In Africa, only 58 % of the total population has access to drinking water. By 2025, prognostics forecast that 230 million of the African population will be living in scarce areas that is < 1,000 cubic meters water/capita/year and around 430 million of the population will be living in stressed areas that is 1, 000-1,700 cubic meters water/capita/years. Because of this, Africa has to manage its water in a context of growing population and increasing demand on water supplies in agriculture. Indeed, agriculture represents 85% of the total amount of used water, domestic water represents 13% and industry 4%.

Moreover, the rainfall in Africa is around 670 mm per year like in Europe and in North America however, evaporation rates are resulting in substantially lower percentages of precipitation contributing to renewable water resources.
The continent has got seventeen rivers with catchments areas greater than 100 000 km2 and more than 160 lakes larger than 27 km2. Today, water basins are international and have to be sharing between countries. Groundwater is very important in Africa with around 40% of the population that use it as the main source of drinking water.  
 
Access to clean water and sanitation is the most crucial challenge for Africa in a context of increasing water scarcity. 

Questions ... What about the water access and sanitation in rural areas ?  What are the economical, social and political stakes and how the continent is facing them ?